The Best YouTube Videos from Pikes Peak 2012

We scoured through a slew of 2012 Pikes Peak footage to bring you the dos, the don'ts and the most insanely cool moments from this years epic hill climb.

1.

Pikes Peak Hill Climb Tilt Shift
Lets start with a little promo to get a scope of what this course really is. 12.4 miles, 156 corners, 4720 feet of elevation gain ending at its 14,110 foot summit, and near death experiences at every turn.

2.

Jeremy Foley Crash
Number two is a prime example of what can go wrong in the upper section of the course which is aptly named "The Devil's Playground". Unlike so many races of today there are no massive barricades to save you when things go awry, and history has proven that there is always that risk on the way to the peak.

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3.

Multiple Classes in Action
Here is a great little montage showing you how diverse the field can be at Pikes Peak. With everything from open wheel, to vintage, to stock cars, to semi trucks, you never really know what you're going to find from year to year.

4.

Dallenbach-Banks and the Flying Camera
Although there are plenty of surprises, Paul Dallenbach has become a familiar face on the hill over the years, holding 6 wins, 3 overall wins, and a brief stint as record holder in 1993. This year he was back in the Banks Power open wheel car providing all the aural goodness you'd expect from a twin-turbocharged Chevy small block.

5.

Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima – Day 2 Practice Run
This year, Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima was competing in an EV. It was expected he was on his way to a Time Attack win this year, but a fire put him out of the running. Here is an excerpt from a training runs to show us what could have been.

6.

TMG EV P002 – To the Finish Line
Not to let the monster run away with the EV title, Toyota Motorsport Gmbh (TMG) also threw their hat into the EV ring at Pikes Peak. Their driver Fumio Nutahara set a time of 10 minutes 15.380 seconds to set a new record for electric vehicles.

7.

Top Section Practice Run – Electric M3
As with most categories, there are just as many grassroots teams (if not more) than there are manufacturer-sponsored outfits. EV West out of California had a hefty task in front of them building this all-electric 1995 BMW M3.

8.

Polaris RZR
Have a look at this evil critter. Based on the Polaris RZR side-by-side, this thing is just plain strange but looks like it could be an absolute riot both on and off-road.

9.

Top 5 Car Finishes
For the big guns in this race, the finish line is everything. Here is a quick recap of this year's top 5 finish line moments. Included in this is recap is Romain Dumas, the French racer campaigning a new Porsche 911 GT3 R. Dumas didn't have the best luck with weather conditions on his run, and was a mere seventeen thousanths of a second off the record time of Rhys Millen. Ouch!

10.

Rhys Millen Word Record Run
As expected, there couldn't be a top 10 of Pikes Peak without a replay of Rhys Millen's record setting run. I'm still floored that his attempt last year fell flat in what looked to be a significantly more advanced car. I know I'll be excited to see what he brings next year in an attempt to remain king of the hill.